Cheever Racing was an auto racing team founded in 1996 by Eddie Cheever as Team Cheever in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series. They fielded a car for Cheever for much of its existence, but occasionally ran two cars, almost always for the Indianapolis 500. The team won the 1998 Indianapolis 500 with Cheever driving and then switched to Infiniti engines and gained sponsorship from Excite for 2000. The team continued to be moderately successful and gained Infiniti's first series win. When Infiniti left the series in 2003 the team, which by then was sponsored by Red Bull switched to Chevrolet engines and then switched to Toyota in 2005, after Chevrolet's departure. Despite some of the most talented drivers in the league, a long string of bad luck and underpowered engines rendered the team little more than mid-pack. With no sponsor for the 2006 season, Eddie decided to trim the team to a single car and return to the cockpit as both a cost-cutting move and to seize the opportunity to return to racing before he felt he got too old to be competitive. Cheever only committed to drive until the Indianapolis 500 but continued until the 8th race of the season. The IRL operation shut down after the Kansas Speedway race when it could not find a sponsor or pay driver to continue.

Cheever Racing also ran a Daytona Prototype car in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. In 2007 Cheever purchased the intellectual property rights to the Fabcar chassis and has renewed its development and begun offering the chassis to other teams in the series.Braun, Travis. Cheever Racing to Offer Fabcar Chassis to Others , AutoWeek, September 19, 2007 The car was subsequently renamed the Coyote chassis, in tribute to the racing cars built in the 1970s by A. J. Foyt Enterprises. Cheever Racing did not field any entries for the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

In 2006, Cheever also founded an Indy Pro Series team. In 2006, its car was driven by Chris Festa. Their driver for the 2007 season was Richard Antinucci, Eddie's nephew; Antinucci captured two wins on a part-time schedule.

Drivers who have driven for Cheever

IRL IndyCar Series Alex Barron (2003–2005) Ed Carpenter (2004) Patrick Carpentier (2005) Eddie Cheever (1996–2002, 2006) Tomáš Enge (2006) Wim Eyckmans (1999) Scott Goodyear (2001) Robby McGehee (2002) Max Papis (2002, 2006) Buddy Rice (2002–2003) Tomas Scheckter (2002) Robby Unser (1998) Jeff Ward (1997)

Indy Pro Series Richard Antinucci (2007) Chris Festa (2006)

Grand Am Fabio Babini (2008) Matteo Bobbi (2008) Harrison Brix (2007) Patrick Carpentier (2006) Eddie Cheever (2006–2007) Emmanuel Collard (2007) Tommy Erdos (2007–2008) Christian Fittipaldi (2006–2008) Antonio García (2008) Stefan Johansson (2006) Tom Kimber-Smith (2008) Lucas Luhr (2006) Sascha Maassen (2007) Scott Mayer (2008) Mike Newton (2007–2008) Hoover Orsi (2006) Stephane Ortelli (2008) Brent Sherman (2008)

Racing results

Complete IRL IndyCar Series results (key) Year Chassis Engine Tyres Drivers No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 1996–1997 NHA LSV WDW PHX INDY TXS PPIR CLT NHA2 LSV2Lola T95/00Menard V6t 51 15 253rd230 G-Force GF01 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 1 12 23 6 4 6 9* 21 52 369 1998 WDW PHX INDY TXS NHA DOV CLT PPIR ATL TXS LSV Dallara IR8 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 Eddie Cheever51 24 10 1* 26 9 16 20 8 3 25 59th222 Robby Unser52 1116th176 G-Force GF01B 5 9 11 12 16 2 16 1999 INDY Dallara IR9Oldsmobile Aurora V8 Eddie Cheever51 1 17C7th222 Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 18 16 4 6 21 11 17 4 Oldsmobile Aurora V852 2345th7 2000 INDY Mk VII Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 Eddie Cheever51 3 103rd257Dallara IR-00 11 5 9 1 21 4 2 Ross Cheever52 DNQ NC— 2001 INDY Dallara IR-01 Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 Eddie Cheever51 19 9 24 26 12 6 13 1* 15 21 4 3 188th261 Scott Goodyear52 32 48th1 2002 INDY MCH Dallara IR-02 Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 Eddie Cheever51 25 15 20 7 5 19 8 14 16 6 22 11 10 5 810th28052 6 24 24 21 26* 17* 16 4 15* 13 1* 22 Wth14th210 Buddy Rice 4 9 622nd14053 2 12 Max Papis 2316 Robby McGehee 13142 2003 INDY Dallara IR-03 Chevrolet Indy V8 Buddy Rice52 16 9 13 11 14 9 9 19 18 11 14 11 1016th229 Alex Barron 7 10 20216 2004 INDY Dallara IR-04 Chevrolet Indy V8 Alex Barron51 16 4 12 12 3 22 10 17 7 11 11 10 12 12 18 1412th310 Ed Carpenter52 12 19 22 31 21 16 14 22 11 14 8 11 20 11 12 2116th245 2005 INDY Dallara IR-05 Toyota Indy V8 Alex Barron51 8 13 10 19 13 14 6 13 15 8 11 4 18 3 21 17 1411th329 83 7 9 8 13 21 16 3 14 3 7 9 12 10 4 9 10 1510th376 2006 HMS STP INDY Dallara IR-05 Honda HI6R V8 Eddie Cheever51 10 11 13 17 17 14 1419th114 Tomáš Enge 1932nd12 Max Papis52 1427th16

The 1999 VisionAire 500K at Charlotte was cancelled after 79 laps due to spectator fatalities.

Complete Indy Pro Series results (key) Year Car Drivers No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Points 2006 Dallara-Nissan HMS STP INDY WGL IMS NSH MIL KTY SNM CHI Chris Festa511668414159 Wth858th205 2007 Dallara-Nissan HMS STP INDY MIL IMS IOW WGL NSH MOH KTY SNM CHI Richard Antinucci511915968512115th273

IndyCar wins

# Season Date Sanction Track / Race No. Winning driver Chassis Engine Tire Grid Laps Led11996-97January 25IRLWalt Disney World Speedway (O)51 Eddie CheeverG-Force GF01Oldsmobile Aurora V8Goodyear 5 421998May 24IRLIndianapolis 500 (O)51 Eddie Cheever (2)Dallara IR8Oldsmobile Aurora V8Goodyear 17 7631999January 24IRLWalt Disney World Speedway (O)51 Eddie Cheever (3)Dallara IR9Oldsmobile Aurora V8Goodyear 13 4042000June 18IRLPikes Peak International Raceway (O)51 Eddie Cheever (4)Dallara IR-00Infiniti VRH35ADE V8Firestone 10 3952001July 8IRLKansas Speedway (O)51 Eddie Cheever (5)Dallara IR-01Infiniti VRH35ADE V8Firestone 2 10462002July 28IRLMichigan International Speedway (O)52 Tomas Scheckter (R)Dallara IR-02Infiniti VRH35ADE V8Firestone Pole 122

References